Semi-weekly south Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1883-1889, 1887-04-29
The Railroads and the Law.


ined that il was only necessary 10 pass
a law and all Irregularities in rates
and all grounds of complaints would
be removed, widespread dissatisfac-
ton is manifested aud confusion
everywhere exists.
This was inevitable. Any one who
had taken care to become familiar
with our transportation system, and
who understood the first principles
on which rates are regulated, would
have known that the changes which
such law would necessitate would
be many and serious. Nothing en-
ters more intimately into all business
transactions than the transportation
charge. There is no sale of any ma
terial OF the looms or products of the
soil which does not involve the pay
ment of some transportation charge.
If Congress should pass law doub-
ling the tariff rates, and abolishing
the free list in sixty days, one could
see what confusion, what wrong,
what injustice would result.
So with the interstate law. There
are provisions which no one under
stands, and there are others, which,
ifstrictly interpreted, will revolution
ize business. Naturally uneasiness
and alarm prevail, and this uneasi-
ness and alarm are increased when
we see that, even in the East, where
the changes would be less than in the
West and South, there is an advance
in the tax which is destructive to
many kinds of business.
Some editors who have imagined
that this question was to be settled Off
hand who had no idea that freight
rates were parts of a vast system Of
exchange and production, which are
regulated as interest charges, or as
profits, or as prices of other commod-
tiles are regulated-tbese happy go
lucky journalists and philosophers
are now surprised at the revolution
in public sentiment, and cry out that
1t is due to conspiracy" between
the railroads.
Any observer knows that the rail-
roads are united in their interpreta-
ton of the law. The great corpora
tons, operating lines in thickly set
tied territory, are well enough pleas
cd; they are trying, without much
regard to business interests, so to even
up charges as to protect their own
revenues, though they do vast and
irreparable injury TO their connec-
tions in the West and South. Yet
we do not see that the business men
of Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore,
or New York, or the manufacturers
of New England are delighted with
the law. In the South, fortunately,
the commission has given us at least
temporary relief, and we have as yet
little or nothing to complain of ex.
cept fears that the commission may
be bulldozed by the attitude of the
Eastern lines and of certain Eastern
journals and apply the cast-iron rul-
ing which the Eastern lines wish en-
forced to the agricultural regions of
the West and South. If so, popular
remonstrance will be 30 deep and
vigorous that an extra session of
Congress could not furnish relief
promptly enough. The people begin
10 see what a wide departure has
been taken from the paths of strict
construction and limited government
tai powers in the passage of this re-
markable bill. They see the control
of130,000 miles Of railroad given TO
five men. They see the business of
every community, the price of every
article, threatened. They see coal
mines closed, and wooden mills shut
off from their source of supply, and
business Of all kinds limited and
localized. Mines at Jellico, which
are located on the Kentucky side, can
ship coal to Louisville in competition
with Pittsburgh, while mines a few
rods beyond, being across the State
line, can not enter the same market.
Jellico can send coal to Louisville.
but not to Memphis or to Nashville,
when the commission apply the East
ern Interpretation TO the law.
The Courier-Journal warned Mr..
Reagan and his followers that con-
solicitations greater than any we had
known would be made almost inevi-
table by Governmental interference
and the suspension of competition.
We urged, as against the bill, that
any interference, however slight,
would make every other step in that
direction easier, until we had estab-
lished at Washington actual possess
sion of all lines of transportation,
with commission vested with pow
ers such as the autocrat of the Russias
does not possess. Now even the reg
ulators see this, too, and, indeed, |
threaten IL as the way out ofthe pres
ent situation. The st. Louis Repub-
lican says:
at is probable we shall see in the
near future vaster consultations of
railroads than we have seen in the
past; there has been and still is
tendency that way which IL seems
Impossible TO prevent, even If it were
desirable TO prevent II. But the con-
will have to conform and
be subject to the national Interstate
Commerce Law and the local codes
Of the Representative States, and this
ilisarms the process of its menace
The people have placed their hand on
The corporations and put a bit in their
and they no longer have reas-
on to fear them. And there is anoth-
or reflection which at present is more
curious than practical: When the
railroads of the country shall have
iuggled themselves down to the very
smallest practicable ownership, will
they not have perfected a case for am
illustration of socialism, and will not
the condition of things brought about
by the corporations be strong in
to the Government TO take
possession Of the whole elaborate avs